They’re illegal here too
So, it seems in Mexico, authorities are saying that the guns used in high profile crimes there originate in the US:
U.S. Guns Behind Cartel Killings in Mexico
Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles.
Alvarado crumpled at the wheel of his sedan, yet another victim of the weapons known here as “goat’s horns” because of their curved ammunition clips, and which can fire at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. The killing, Mexican authorities said, was a panorama of blood, shattered glass and torn metal that brutally showcased the firepower of Mexico’s drug cartels. But that was just the warm-up.
Two hours later, a small army of cartel hit men descended on a federal police office and bunkhouse in this crowded city at one of the world’s busiest border crossings. None of the officers, who had recently been sent here to crush the drug gangs terrorizing the city, were killed in the hail of more than 1,200 bullets, authorities said. But police veterans understood the message delivered to the newcomers: “Welcome to Tijuana. Our guns are bigger than your guns.”
The high-powered guns used in both incidents on the evening of Sept. 24 undoubtedly came from the United States, say police here, who estimate that 100 percent of drug-related killings are committed with smuggled U.S. weapons.
The guns pass into Mexico through the “ant trail,” the nickname for the steady stream of people who each slip two or three weapons across the border every day. The “ants” — along with larger smuggling operations — are feeding a rapidly expanding arms race between Mexican drug cartels.
The U.S. weapons — as many as 2,000 enter Mexico each day, according to a Mexican government study — are crucial tools in an astoundingly barbaric war between rival cartels that has cost 4,000 lives in the past 18 months and sent law enforcement agencies in Washington and Mexico City into crisis mode.
Such machine guns are illegal here in the states as they have been banned since 1986. I’m not sure whether to question the claim or the accuracy of the story.
Update: Jeff: Actually, it’s the drug cartels in Mexico that are behind the killings but guns are easier to blame. Well, I thought that was clear.
Update 2: Uh oh:
Three high-ranking Mexican police officers were arrested over the weekend after for after they reportedly bought weapons at a gun show in Phoenix in violation of a law barring non-citizens from purchasing firearms, a federal official said Wednesday.
The three include the director of the Baja California state police and a commander of the federal police in Baja California, said Tom Mangan, a spokesman with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix.
October 29th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Not to mention that anything remotely resembling an AK-47 has been illegal in CA for years…
October 29th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Hmmm… 2000 guns per day. 365 days per year. That’s 730,000 guns per year.
Sorry, gotta raise the BS flag on that one.
even better (from the article):
“[the Tijuana police director] has just 150 AR-15 rifles to spread among 3,000 officers. Arms smugglers bring more than that into Mexico in a typical two-hour period.”
That’s 150x(24/2)x365 = 657,000 AR’s per year. Do all US manufacturers combined even make that many?
This article is pure libtard propaganda. The Washington Post is a rag.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:38 am
[…] bit from the aforementioned WaPo bit on guns in Mexico: But law enforcement officers on both sides of the border have never seen anything like the flood […]
October 29th, 2007 at 11:17 am
When we do find AK’s in CA, it seems that the Chinese are behind it. It happened ten years ago, but they’re nothing if not persistent – and how much more easy it would be to grease a few hands and smuggle AK’s straight into Mexico, given the graft and corruption that’s endemic?
“2,000” – maybe that’s where they got the magical-thinking “2,000” number?
October 29th, 2007 at 11:17 am
The used Wintemute as a source. Enough said there.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:43 am
I want to know what gun shows I can go to where they sell grenades.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:58 am
“estimate that 100 percent of drug-related killings are committed with smuggled U.S. weapons.”
They expect us to believe that there’s NO other source? Sure. That’d be like us saying that 100% of the crimes committed in the USA are done by illegals from Mexico.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
This is kind of a “moral panic”, but for guns. It could be called a “gun panic”.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Are there even any US manufacturers of AK-47’s?
Regardless, I agree that the ones being used by Mexican gangsters are far more likely to be of Chinese or other former communist block manufacture. They made enough AK-47’s to arm most of the world’s armies, and the surplus easily makes it to the black market. The Mexicans would be far better off if they could legally import American made semi-autos instead of smuggling in full-autos of indifferent accuracy and questionable workmanship and condition…
October 29th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
*wink*
Oh my GOD it’s HORRIBLE! We should seal the border IMMEDIATELY for the CHILDREN!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
markm: Yes, many of them, all relatively low-volume, as far as I know. Though I think they all use some/many foreign-made parts.
A Federal Official Said: “in violation of a law barring non-citizens from purchasing firearms“.
Funny, last time I looked on a 4473 there was no ban on non-citizens buying guns. Sure, you need to be a legal immigrant alien or have a hunting license if you’re a legal non-immigrant alien.
(See here. Note how a “non-US” answer to question 10 is not a disqualifier, and the existence of questions 11, 12 part l, and 13; 18c on the second page, and notice 6 on page 3.
But why would a mere federal official talking about the legality of firearms purchases know anything you can know merely by reading the form everyone has to fill out to purchase a gun from a dealer?)
October 29th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
This is simply a case of one tyrannical government and one would be tyrannical government aiding each other in propaganda machinations to achieve more state power for each of the participants at the expense of their citizens.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
[…] is correct to point out that machine guns are just as illegal here as they are in Mexico, yet they keep blaming American […]
October 29th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
For your 26th birthday you’re supposed to get something in .36 caliber – .357 Magnum, 9mm, that sort of thing. You can tell your wife I said it was OK. 🙂
October 31st, 2007 at 3:31 am
Let’s see, firearms difficult to come by in the US being smuggled into Mexico in violation of US export laws and Mexican importation laws? Perhaps the Mexican government might like to join with the US for a joint effort to secure the common border.
Seems more likely, weapons left over from the wars from Nicaragua and El Salvador are making their way north. Or from Cuba, Venezuela, or Panama. Easier to smuggle weapons into the country across the southern border into the Chiapas region, which had an armed insurgency ten years ago than run the US border patrol gauntlet.
Interesting the Mexican police officers were charged with state weapons misconduct and not federal charges. Also, if they had let them try to cross the border, they could have gotten them on violation of US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which requires little proof other than having the weapons in their possession as they try to cross the border and subjects them to criminal, civil and administrative penalties. ITAR is a nice bit of bureaucratic hell.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Yeah, If I was a drug kingpin in Mexico, I would need a place to put all that cash, so I would come to the U.S. and spend hundreds of dollars for a semi-automatic copy of the real machine gun I could get for $50 in most of the rest of the world. Makes sense to me. Uh huh. Sure it does.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:39 am
[…] I was going to blast this bit by Paul Helmke in which he parrots untruths about Mexico and gun shows but Thirdpower reminded me that I already did. […]